1. Some of the bases of the assigning minority status of minority groups in the United States are ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. These bases are assigned on their perceived permanency and on visibly identifying the minority group from the majority.
2. In liberal structuralism, there is an emphasis on the demand for institutional transformation in order to achieve a certain goal, on the other hand, behavioral structuralism highlights the relevance of behavioral change as a means to fulfil such goal.
3. The sex vs gender argument is made based the idea that sex refers to the biological attributes that differentiate males from females, while gender refers to the social construct that leads to the creation of roles for each individual depending upon their sexual orientation.
4. The three strategies for coping with minority status are:
a) Accomodation: Refers to the strategy resorted to by the minorities where they consent towards accepting the norms, values, and practices of the majority. Some people thought that this strategy is advantageous because the minority groups will eventually gain access to the privileges given to the majority groups.
b) Separatism: Denotes a political strategy where the minority groups reject the practices and values common among the majority groups, and this includes seeking minimal contact with the majorities (Ishiyama and Breuning, 834).
c) Radicalism: In this strategy, the minority group declines to adopt the norms and practices of the majority, and further employ measures to alter or replace these norms and practices with their existing beliefs and values.
1. Accomodation: This refers to the act of reconciling, settling or accepting an opposing practice; in social groups it means the process of adaptation of certain norms and values.
2. Heterosexism: Defined as the tendency of people to favor or presume that the only acceptable norm in establishing a relationship are those that involved two individuals from the opposite sex.
3. Discrimination: In a social context, discrimination refers to favoring or going against an individual or a group based on a certain category such as gender, race and ethnicity.
4. Ethnicity: Refers to the category where a certain group is classified according to their shared language, ancestry, culture and nationality.
5. Stereotypes: Social Psychologists defined stereotype as perceptions or ways of thinking that are assigned and thus are expected of specific groups. While these perceptions may not be true or do not reflect an accurate reality, they are generally accepted in the society.
6. Social Stratification: This refers to the process of categorization, where the people are tagged according to the perceived social strata where they belong. The category is generally divided according to income, occupation, wealth, or political power.
7. Assimilation: The process of assimilation refers to the course of development where people from different backgrounds come together to form a larger community, it can also refer to the integration of the minority group into a bigger group.
8. Occupational Niche: Occupational group is referred to as a group’s expertise in a certain job.
9. Identification Theory: A person adapts a behavior or characteristics of other groups which eventually transforms him in who or in part by the model provided by the other group.
10. Racial Reasoning: This is a form of reasoning where racial attributes were greatly taken into consideration when judging others, instead of suing logical and moral reasoning
Works Cited
Ishiyama, J., and Breuning, M. 21st Century Political Science: A Reference Handbook. Sage Publications: 2010.
